I've been trying to get a 29 year old disk working

[Starglider]

Those who've followed my other posts will know I've been trying to find a DD 3" drive for the Amstrad PCW, with the end game of reading a childhood 3" disk from 1986. I hadn't realized the disk was double density when I found a PCW 8256 for sale in Los Angeles (Amstrad are pretty unheard of out here) – which of course is single density.

After messing around with a faulty Drive B I bought, and rewiring the cable to put a twist in it for a Drive B that was hardwired as Drive A then didn't work, I finally received today a working DD Drive B. Of course, I had to solder the cable back to its original untwisted state before the drive would work, as the PCW thought I had 2 drive As.

Then the big moment!...

I booted up Locoscript in Drive A...

Put my childhood disk in Drive B...

AND IT WORKED!

Before my eyes were folders and folders full of gems. My parents' work files I'd helped them with when I was 14, my school projects, my birthday wish lists, poetry, song lyrics, even a sick note to get out of gym!

It almost feels like it shouldn't be allowed – to travel back with such clarity and experience things exactly as they had been in front of my eyes. Really amazing.

A good day.

[Fessor]

Yeah.
Its quite amazing how stable those old 3"-Disks are. Your "faulty" Drive maybe only needs a new drivebelt to get it back into working condition.

[Starglider]

Yeah.
Its quite amazing how stable those old 3"-Disks are. Your "faulty" Drive maybe only needs a new drivebelt to get it back into working condition.

Isn't it!

(As for the EME-232 drive, it already has a new belt. Probably alignment issue. It's on eBay now as I have a fully working setup.) [emoji106]

Thanks!

"Recordar es vivir"

[Bryce]

Very cool when you find stuff from back then... Now make a backup!

Bryce.

[Starglider]

Very cool when you find stuff from back then... Now make a backup!

Bryce.

I have one Locoscript/CPM disk only, and some blank DD disks. Is there a disk copy utility there? I don't have the utilities disk.

Thanks!

"Recordar es vivir"

[Bryce]

You should have the PIP command on the CP/M disk. This can be used to copy stuff. Syntax is:

PIP B:Example.com=A:Example.com  - This copies Example.com from B to A. The destination name can be different and you can use wildcards too.

Bryce.

[Starglider]

Will PIP duplicate an entire DD disk from Drive B to Drive B (via M in 2 passes), like Disckit?

Thanks!

"Recordar es vivir"

[Bryce]

Will PIP duplicate an entire DD disk from Drive B to Drive B (via M in 2 passes), like Disckit?

Thanks!

"Recordar es vivir"

Can't remember, but there's lots of info on the web about the pip commands if you search.

Bryce.

[CPC_Fan]

Glad to hear that you got a working drive again and managed to retrieve your stuff from the disc Starglider.

[TFM]

From my first 10-pack of Panasonic 3" discs I got 1987 (after X-MASS 1986 actually) still all of them work, I checked them in May with BD04.COM and FutureOS disc-copy with 'repeat-on-error = 1' - they all worked flawless. Now that is.... rounded up 29 years. 

[||C|-|E||]

I recently recovered a few games I made using 3D construction kit when I was a kid and I had exactly the same feeling when I saw them running in the Plus  . Now they are happily resting as DSK and HFE files and I can load them whenever I want. It was actually very nice to try the games in an emulator to increase the speed a little bit. Too bad that, back in that time, I thought that the hardest the better and they are full of crappy insta-deaths. I managed to finish them, but it was a miracle I remembered where every crappy trap was  .

[ivarf]

Wonderful that you got your US Amstrad working! Did you know anyone else having an Amstrad? Have you ever seen other US Amstrad? PCs or CPCs?

[HAL6128]

Will PIP duplicate an entire DD disk from Drive B to Drive B (via M in 2 passes), like Disckit?

Thanks!

"Recordar es vivir"

No, PIP is only a file copy application via M in 2 passes (if from B to B). It doesn't duplicate a disc sector wise. So, it is possible to copy to another format.

[FloppySoftware]

Will PIP duplicate an entire DD disk from Drive B to Drive B (via M in 2 passes), like Disckit?

No.

PIP copies files, not disks.

If you want an exact copy of a disk, you must use disckit.

If you want copy the files only, you can use pip. You can use the G option to copy between user areas (or LocoScript groups).

[FloppySoftware]

PIP B:Example.com=A:Example.com  - This copies Example.com from B to A. The destination name can be different and you can use wildcards too.

This copies Example.com from A: to B, because pip uses the syntax:
pip destination=source

[Starglider]

Wonderful that you got your US Amstrad working! Did you know anyone else having an Amstrad? Have you ever seen other US Amstrad? PCs or CPCs?

The only other person I know of is the stranger on Craigslist who advertised it as an Apple PCW. When i arrived to collect it, it had an Apple sticker on the side!

Thanks!

"Recordar es vivir"

[FloppySoftware]

I have one Locoscript/CPM disk only, and some blank DD disks. Is there a disk copy utility there? I don't have the utilities disk.

You still need disckit to format blank disks.

[TFM]

Never seen any other Amstrad CPC / PC in the USA. But I still got the broken US-CTM644. Dunno if I shall dump it or pay all the money to bring it to Europe and let Bryce fix it. Its the only one I ever had / heart of. If we would have CPC museum I would donate it.

[Starglider]

You still need disckit to format blank disks.

I realized it is on the CP/M disk I have. Backup commencing (in 5 parts!) Thanks for the blank disks @pacomix

Thanks!

"Recordar es vivir"

[ivarf]

Never seen any other Amstrad CPC / PC in the USA. But I still got the broken US-CTM644. Dunno if I shall dump it or pay all the money to bring it to Europe and let Bryce fix it. Its the only one I ever had / heart of. If we would have CPC museum I would donate it.

Definetly keep it. We know almost nothing about Amstrad in the USA and even less about the CPC. You have hard evidense. How did you get it?

[deepfb]

According to Alan Sugar ('What You See Is What You Get', Macmillan, London, 2010) it was José Luis Domínguez (head of Amstrad España) who sold some CPC 6128 in USA. Sugar did not want to enter that market, so Domínguez and his Peruvian partner* (whose name I can't remember now) rebranded and marketed those units at their own risk.


I had the opportunity to ask Domínguez about it, and he said it was not a bad move, and that his (limited) success encouraged Sugar to sell a bunch of PCWs in the USA later.


That is the reason for the (at first) strange label on the back of US Solavox CPCs: it reads 'Indescomp USA'! (Indescomp was the spanish company owned by Domínguez which Amstrad Plc partnered with). Some of those Solavox CPCs came back to Spain (the unsold ones I guess), and that is why it is quite easy to find them here.


*Amstrad computers were very scarce in South America at that time. Argentinian and Uruguayan collectors say that CPC computers were very uncommon there, although there were some (Narco Police was produced there, for example). Anyway, you could find a wide range of home computers in the Cono Sur, from ZX Spectrum to Apple, from MSX to Commodore, Atari or TI, and that is different from the rest of South America... or that is what I thought. I was very surprised when I received a message, some time ago, from a Peruvian user who said there was a small CPC users community around Lima area at the beginning of the nineties. Maybe that Peruvian partner of Domínguez also sold some CPCs in his own country?

[Bryce]

Never seen any other Amstrad CPC / PC in the USA. But I still got the broken US-CTM644. Dunno if I shall dump it or pay all the money to bring it to Europe and let Bryce fix it. Its the only one I ever had / heart of. If we would have CPC museum I would donate it.

That all depends on what it would cost to ship!? Probably a lot unless you are moving back and shipping a container anyway.

Bryce.

[TFM]

Definetly keep it. We know almost nothing about Amstrad in the USA and even less about the CPC. You have hard evidense. How did you get it?

I got it at ebay by accident. It does contain aside of the main PCB a 2nd PCB vertikal at the side. Don't know if this is common, but regarding the pictures at the CPCWiki it doesn't seem so.

EDIT: I don't know about the story deepfb is telling. But the unit I have has a regular Amstrad brand and the back side label clearly stated that it is for the USA, so no rebranding here.

btw: Wasn't the first CPC6128 shown in USA first?

That all depends on what it would cost to ship!? Probably a lot unless you are moving back and shipping a container anyway.Bryce.

Actually not, I prefer a spartanic life-style (SPARtan mode on :-)). So what I will bring back will be my 6128 keyboard, TotO's expansion cards, some clothes. Furniture will go to people who like it and that's about it. I got a nice Sony monitor now, not sure how to deal with it. Actually depends if I can carry a monitor on plane. Tolkin once told me that he had serious problem to fly a monitor from France to Germany, his plane got even deleyed - but how stupid: A lesser pressure will for sure not make a CRT exploding, which IS actually deprived of air anyway 

[Starglider]

My USA PCW 8256 looks identical to the UK one, aside from the mains plug and taking 110v power of course.

Thanks!

"Recordar es vivir"

[Gryzor]

What a cool story Must have felt so great!!


Can you share the birthday wish list?